


choices

by a_real_nowhere_man



Category: Original Work
Genre: Implied Character Death, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:13:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26239159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_real_nowhere_man/pseuds/a_real_nowhere_man
Summary: the story of a man faced with the most important choice he will ever make.
Relationships: None





	choices

The pervading chill penetrated the body of the nameless man waking him from dreams of freedom. His skeletal body slumped dejectedly on the crude pile of filthy rags he used as a sorry excuse for a bed. There was no light but for the few scant rays that managed to creep through the entombing stones within which the small barred window was set. This meager light barely illuminated these squalid conditions, providing only enough light to navigate the cramped chamber.

Click, Click, Click.

The subtle tapping of footsteps so different from the usual tromping of guards drew him from his stupor. Muffled by the thick door he heard a harsh voice feminine voice bark out. “Open the cell the chancellor has decided that this prisoner shall be offered the choice.”

with a sound akin to the chime of a death knell, the great steel bound door swung open. Allowing in a wash of light blinding the prisoner. He was lifted bodily from his repose and dragged down the hall, much in the way one would while dealing with a sack of grain.

The pain from the sensory overload after years of isolation within the cell nearly rendered the man unconscious. Until a sharp pain in his neck brought him back to reality. He found himself alone in a grey room overlooked by a shadowed balcony. Before him stood two doors one white as ash and one black as soot. from the balcony called down an imposing voice.

"You have a choice before you, within your veins runs a poison that will surely kill you before next dawn should it go unchecked. behind the white door you will receive the antidote and be returned to your cell. Behind the other door on the other hand is a passage which will lead you to the outside world where you may spend your last hours. Make your choice quickly or it will be made for you."

His mind raced a fearful voice screaming to take the antidote to be returned to the safe routines of the life he has known. But there was another voice, a quiet voice, it reminded him of the dreams within which his mind hid away. Dreams of blue skies and green hills. And slowly the Nameless man began on unsteady legs to walk, he crossed the empty room passing under the watchful gazes he felt from the darkened balcony. He went up to the black door and went through.

As he went he spoke to himself in a voice rusty from years of disuse. "I wonder if the sky still remembers me, As I remember the sky."


End file.
